August 24, 2009

MONTREAL 5

I've been out and going to Prides for about 20 years now. That's a long time. So there was a time, in the mid to late 90s when I stopped getting excited by Prides mainly because they ceased to be about actual GLBT Pride and more about a corporation's advertising. That's not Pride. I don't know that I necessarily have anything against having an American Airlines float or a Citibank float in the Gay Pride parade, but it doesn't scream 'political action' in the same way that a Pride parade is supposed to. Remember, Pride was born from people fighting BACK not out of a marketing director's staff meeting. I feel as though the past few Pride celebrations that I have made it to either as a participant or as an observer have, I dunno, lacked something.

Also, I have always been pretty out so I tend to live my life as though every day were Gay Pride day... so the actual day is in some ways to me at least kind of redundant. But I do recognize that that's not true of everyone and thus a special day to focus our attention on is important.

I went to Montreal for Pride not for any other reason than my friends invited me to come and I thought it would be better to go on a party weekend when the city would be celebrating and out and everyone would be having fun. The city did not disappoint. And, surprisingly, the Pride parade didn't disappoint either. Nor did the after party dance, but I'm getting ahead of myself.

By the time I'd rolled in after a night of debauch (hangover alert: no hangover by the way) the boys were scattered around the house and I plopped down into my bed for a good couple hours sleep. I don't know about you, but when I have a short amount of time to spend somewhere, I kind of don't want to 'waste' it sleeping. And so as soon as my body had gotten the bare minimum to get along by, I was up again. (oh, it caught up with me as soon as I got back to New York and I kind of struggled to get through Bingo I'm sorry to say).

Anyway, here are a series of short videos of the highlights from the parade.. they show the imagination of the parade (particularly the Stud truck which was my favorite) and the diversity of the Montreal community. Best thing about the parade? It took an hour. None of this five hour stuff, one solid hour of really good political groups, bars and drag queens, with drummers and other fun people thrown in for good measure. More after the jump (and to those wondering why one of the videos is on Gay Tube, I worried that You Tube would censor and then give me another demerit for the leather bondage casket towards the end... sigh).

Afterwards I was on my own to go to the after party which was an outdoor dance party at the end of St. Catherine's Street.

I was amazed that

a. it was free

b. it was both gay men and lesbians

c. it was both straight and gay

d. some of the guys that danced shirtless weren't 'nipple ponies' but were just feeling free to be half naked on a hot summer night

and e. everyone was having a great time and smiling.

While not knocking the huge money maker that is New York's Pier Dance, I went to that this year and all I saw were grim faced white muscle queens who all had exactly the same body. I could stand it for about ten minutes and then I had to get the fuck out of there. Surely there must be some alternative? (oh yeah, there was, it was the Susan Morabito party I went to and had THE TIME OF MY LIFE all night long til the sun rose - and then some).

But the lack of sleep caught up with me and I scampered back... Paul had already left on a business trip and Chris was at home. We had a little supper and then went for Gelato and a walk around the big neighboring park. It was really sweet and quiet and alluring.

I rested that night and with a similar whirlwind that I left New York with, I got ready in the morning to go come home. I found myself at the end of another very long line but in the end still found a good seat (in another semi unairconditioned car) and got a little melancholy as the train pulled out of the station and across the bridge and out of my Montreal weekend.

I had had a relaxing train ride up and back, I had spent time with my new friends Chris and Paul, I had experience a strip club and had definitely enjoyed Montreal's gay pride. And I'd relaxed and taken off at least one layer of anxiety from my current New York life.. and that's saying something. It's rather archaeological if you really get right down to it. ....... anyway, later, I captured this video as we pulled into some station just north of Manhattan. It seemed like the perfect quiet way to put a coda on to the weekend and to my wild and fantastic adventure in Montreal.

Comments

I've been out and going to Prides for about 20 years now. That's a long time. So there was a time, in the mid to late 90s when I stopped getting excited by Prides mainly because they ceased to be about actual GLBT Pride and more about a corporation's advertising. That's not Pride. I don't know that I necessarily have anything against having an American Airlines float or a Citibank float in the Gay Pride parade, but it doesn't scream 'political action' in the same way that a Pride parade is supposed to. Remember, Pride was born from people fighting BACK not out of a marketing director's staff meeting. I feel as though the past few Pride celebrations that I have made it to either as a participant or as an observer have, I dunno, lacked something.

Also, I have always been pretty out so I tend to live my life as though every day were Gay Pride day... so the actual day is in some ways to me at least kind of redundant. But I do recognize that that's not true of everyone and thus a special day to focus our attention on is important.

I went to Montreal for Pride not for any other reason than my friends invited me to come and I thought it would be better to go on a party weekend when the city would be celebrating and out and everyone would be having fun. The city did not disappoint. And, surprisingly, the Pride parade didn't disappoint either. Nor did the after party dance, but I'm getting ahead of myself.

By the time I'd rolled in after a night of debauch (hangover alert: no hangover by the way) the boys were scattered around the house and I plopped down into my bed for a good couple hours sleep. I don't know about you, but when I have a short amount of time to spend somewhere, I kind of don't want to 'waste' it sleeping. And so as soon as my body had gotten the bare minimum to get along by, I was up again. (oh, it caught up with me as soon as I got back to New York and I kind of struggled to get through Bingo I'm sorry to say).

Anyway, here are a series of short videos of the highlights from the parade.. they show the imagination of the parade (particularly the Stud truck which was my favorite) and the diversity of the Montreal community. Best thing about the parade? It took an hour. None of this five hour stuff, one solid hour of really good political groups, bars and drag queens, with drummers and other fun people thrown in for good measure. More after the jump (and to those wondering why one of the videos is on Gay Tube, I worried that You Tube would censor and then give me another demerit for the leather bondage casket towards the end... sigh).

Afterwards I was on my own to go to the after party which was an outdoor dance party at the end of St. Catherine's Street.

I was amazed that

a. it was free

b. it was both gay men and lesbians

c. it was both straight and gay

d. some of the guys that danced shirtless weren't 'nipple ponies' but were just feeling free to be half naked on a hot summer night

and e. everyone was having a great time and smiling.

While not knocking the huge money maker that is New York's Pier Dance, I went to that this year and all I saw were grim faced white muscle queens who all had exactly the same body. I could stand it for about ten minutes and then I had to get the fuck out of there. Surely there must be some alternative? (oh yeah, there was, it was the Susan Morabito party I went to and had THE TIME OF MY LIFE all night long til the sun rose - and then some).

But the lack of sleep caught up with me and I scampered back... Paul had already left on a business trip and Chris was at home. We had a little supper and then went for Gelato and a walk around the big neighboring park. It was really sweet and quiet and alluring.

I rested that night and with a similar whirlwind that I left New York with, I got ready in the morning to go come home. I found myself at the end of another very long line but in the end still found a good seat (in another semi unairconditioned car) and got a little melancholy as the train pulled out of the station and across the bridge and out of my Montreal weekend.

I had had a relaxing train ride up and back, I had spent time with my new friends Chris and Paul, I had experience a strip club and had definitely enjoyed Montreal's gay pride. And I'd relaxed and taken off at least one layer of anxiety from my current New York life.. and that's saying something. It's rather archaeological if you really get right down to it. ....... anyway, later, I captured this video as we pulled into some station just north of Manhattan. It seemed like the perfect quiet way to put a coda on to the weekend and to my wild and fantastic adventure in Montreal.